Factory and industrial farming...

komie's answer reminds me of back to the future. maybe it is best not to eliminate any inventions, in case we significantly and negatively alter the future. that being said, i also agree with komie's wish to erase those jeans from existance, and while we're at it, acid wash and toddler beauty pageants could go.

I would get rid of the internal combustion engine and the petrochemical industry, especially plastics.

Necessity is the mother of all invention. Therefore society must ensure that it doesn’t lapse into a situation where there it necessitates the invention of something negative. To make the gun disappear from history means nothing. There’ll always be an alternative that’ll be equally or more destructive. Personally I think those jeans that are worn around the knees should be erased from history.

IF YOU COULD GET RID OF ONE INVENTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Humans

I'm going like way back but i would like to get rid of religion. I think that religion has been more destructive than any nuclear weapon and it accepts people's ignorance and conformity, it gives people the power to think they know everything from the beginning of time to who is better that who without knowing.

I know this was previously stated, but I agree with CURRENCY. It would make this world such a more peaceful place to be in if there wasn't the worry of money. Thankfully, I had a small taste of life without currency: I went to a village near Costa Maya during Christmas and when I saw the beauty of the ruins and the bond in these primitive villages, I was ready to live life with them; away from materialistic ideals, judgement, society, etc.

Sadly I think we are all looking for something to blame for our own shortcomings nuclear bombs are an invention hard to justify, but in the end whatever the invention we choose to delete we are just denying out own responsiblity, maybe.

I would dump the cell phone.

Credit cards. `Nuff said.

cell phones. there are so many things about them that are helpful, but it makes children less engaged in school, creates a rift between children and their parents, and adds to the already astounding number of car accidents each year. what's wrong with speaking to people in person? writing letters? experiencing the world around you without a device glued to your ear?

uggs/crocs

Big government and the bureaucracies it's spawned.

Computer and Internet :( Computer has become one of the biggest problems in today’s young generation. Young people have become so addicted to computers that they have forgotten about the real world. I am a 21 year old female and most of my friends prefer to stay at home and sit next to their computers rather than going out and having a nice dinner and actually talking to real people. They prefer to sit at home and stare at a screen for hours and that has become their social life :(

cigarettes! dont see what good they brought to humanity... thre's other addictive means to relief stress out there for sure!

cars. yea it would be a pain in the a*s, but we wouldn't have the carbon emissions or gigantic freeways. using horses would be fun, or we could walk and not have an obesity problem. or maybe i just wanna be a caveman

Hanging Chads. Yes I'm still bitter and yes I have the right to be.

@dixventures The thing about religion is that at its beginning and most basic it was meant to explain what was going on around you. Now things that were attributed to God/gods/spirits/etc are explained by science. These are just tools to make sense of the world, and some people prefer the scientific explanation. I don't think science is being 'worshipped', but it does make for better journalism.

....money. that is an interesting idea. what would we do without it? what did we do before we had it? we bartered and traded... it could not be accumulated by the relatively few in the billions while others starved. people have starved in the history of humankind but that was a natural occurrence of the dynamics of earth. now there is NO REASON for human beings to live without enough food, shelter, health care and education. ...also the idea of getting rid of an object, it is just an object. I think most would agree with nuclear bombs, but why do we need them? They were invented to protect us from "the enemy". Why were they the "enemy"? They are different than us. So we fear them. So it is not so much the invention but the need for it, that an invention is no longer relevant to our experience as human beings.

Probably the low-flow toilet.

I want to say that I'd get rid of something big. pnkz suggested guns and massive explosions. juji wants to get rid of weapons of mass destructions. I'd love to get rid of my IPod. I love music; I listen to it every day. Four weeks without a live show leaves me in withdrawal. I'm addicted to sounds and melodies and amazingly insightful lyrics. Music is my drug of choice. The thing is, though, I feel like i'm not interacting with music as much since it's always at hand. I forget to appreciate it, forget to really listen. Not to mention, I miss out on so much around me. I ignore the world that's passing me by because it's infinitely easier to zone out into a song than topay attention to the things around me. I'd love to be more actively involved, to notice when people call out to me in the halls, to be more comfortable with the sound of my own thoughts. Honourable mentions include My TV, My Wireless Modem, My Computer.

guns and massive explosions

Weapons of mass destruction.

I love email and cell phones, but I think that I preferred my life without them. I liked that no one could reach me in the car. I liked that I had a chance to think about my responses in a letter rather than have someone expect an immediate reply via email. I liked catching up with friends rather than having to be satisfied with a Facebook or Twitter update. I liked that things were allowed to be slower. Now, if I don't give my boss an immediately reply to his email, he will call me 2 minutes after he sends it and ask "What's the hold up?".

the tv. gosh, i can't begin to add up how much time i waste watching that stupid thing. i could have read so many more books, actually play the guitar that i own, learned a foreign language, spent more time hanging out with my wife. i haven't had cable for the past three years and i waste enough time with the basic channels, i couldn't imagine having a thousand channels.

Automated voice messages/robots. Every time I call my bank, I get an automated voice message. Every time I call my insurance company, cell phone company, COLLEGE ADMISSIONS [Wtf, seriously?], college anything, I get an automated voice message. I hate it. I hate that I'm talking to a machine. As for robots, I just think there's going to be a robocalypse. [Robot Apocalypse] We don't NEED robots, yet humans are so damn set on having them as companions or servants or some other BS. PEOPLE ARE SO LAZY NOW. With the invention of computers, humans have definitely grown to be more socially awkward, because they spend more time typing to their friends than talking to them in person, catching every little facial expression, learning MANNERS, professionalism, and the like. The fact that people can't even pick up the phone until someone sits through 15-30 minutes of robot talk is ridiculous. I feel so disconnected from the world when I have to do that. Everything about recent technology can be used as a cop-out to avoid confrontation or just a personal interaction at all. It makes me fear for the lives that my children will have, and I feel as though I'm going to have to try extra hard to make sure that they are wholesome human beings. Also, did you hear about the robot that malfunctioned when attempting to FALL IN LOVE with a human being? Yeah, get rid of those damn things. People work too much as it is, and trying to place human emotion in a machine is just frightening. Especially when it goes wrong. It's like all robots will have the equivalent of "mental disorders" if they're not built properly, which will inevitably happen. Great. A bunch of crazy heaps of metal running around.

Religion: I agree with dixventures, mass destruction weapons, slavery, money, and some packaging...

Hey, to this Raki who said "guns"... Come on. It isn't the assault rifle (for instance) that causes men to shoot each other. Its the guy who uses it to do what it was specifically designed to do...spray fire at incredibly high velocity and rounds per minute at humans. You cant fault the designers, or the sellers, or the culture that allows these to be sold legally or the NRA or people with militant mindsets.... Just kidding. But really, if we couldnt shoot each other we would go back to clubbing each other. Wait until laser weapons are perfected....

Having said that... guns / weapons would top my list of inventions we could be rid of...

while i get that Art form/Creativity is from the Creator and creativity is or can be a form of prayer i am concerned that people using film/video to shock/hurt (porn etc) might justify their "art" as prayer.... I love that television, internet makes the world "smaller" while linking so many of us together - even with fun feel-good things like "Where Is Matt" and the T-Mobile Liverpool Station dance.... Many of things on Internet & TV can be very harmful...

hmmmm fast food. Except for Pink Berry. If that is even fast food.

www.soulpancake.com It killed my family.

Altruism. I hate the way the world is, and how it will be for the rest of mankind. Altruism: A "group of collected peoples, equal in all rights, and in all things, including their 'souls'. Their souls are equal in the sense that all souls are owned not by the body hosting the soul, but by the force that tells your soul, in all sense of the expression, what to do." -Taylor Lynch

@Tina_May If you get water in a lithium ion battery it will burst into flame.

@birdrib Fast food is raw meat and eating the wheat instead of making flour and making somthing with it. Grab a carrot from the dirt and wipe it off and chomp on it. That was fast food. I don't eat fast food and that causes less to be made. Let's all do that. and none will be made. :-)

A man made invention...I'd have to say cell-phones have become the most annoying invention. Increasing communication without actually facilitating it, pretty much useless.

AUTOMOBILES! It has had nothing but cancerous growth of cities as we sprawl outward wasting land and destroying natural ecosystems and farmland. We've mangled our infrastructure so much that we can't even come close to living without them anymore. Our subdivisions and mini malls (products of the automobile) have left us without communities or neighborhoods. They are responsible for half of the worlds air pollution, and so many deaths. Worst of all, people lose all respect and compassion for others while driving. Uninvent them!

(Binary/Image)

Geographic boundaries and borders. They were invented out of fear and misunderstanding, and as a means to peace; what a backfire. Power would be a good candidate for the scrap heap since it fosters greed, envy, contention... the list goes on and on.

porn - it degrades women, it keeps men ashamed and guilt-ridden, it steals the innocence of children.

I am hard pressed to think of an invention that has been totally bad. I am of the opinion, like I believe, Lily said there are no bad inventions....just bad intentions. Which runs right in line with the whole....guns don't kill people...people kill people.....etc etc. With that being said I would have to say there are some(most) pharmacuticals that we could really do without.....

well, I think that all inventions are neutral to be used for illumination or darkness depending upon intention. The thing I would get rid of is attachment to separation (oxymoron?) cause that's what talks us into using all these inventions in less than beneficial ways.

Envy. Isn't it just the greatest source of truble brewing. Well, you might say, it's not an invention as such. But it's clearly not Gods gift to man, so someone must have invented it and it was obviously not done for the better of the human race. If it was materialized it would be spiky, ugly, smelly and sticking to every surface it was thrown at. Most of us would have vast amounts of envy hanging from our garments, sticking to our hair and nesting in every aspect of our life's. Imagine, for instance, that you were baking a cake for you school re-union party, putting in a few hours of hard work, and as soon as you put the cake down on the table it was covered with envy. It would be ruined, since envy tastes like limburger cheese, stuffed with licorice and vinegar, inserted in an old sock. Lest not dwell over this anymore. Lets get rid of envy for ever. P.S. I hope you don't wish you wrote this :)

totally styrafoam. When I was a little kid, I shared a bedroom with my two older brothers and my second oldest brother used to eat styrafoam after he thought we were all asleep. I was probably about 6 years old and I can still hear that squeaking sound and it sends a shiver down my spine. Every time I hear that annoying squeak it reminds me of my brother's disgusting habit and every hair on my body stands on end....

I think inventions are good, but as humans we have the free will to take it into any direction - for good or for bad. For example the atom. Such a discovery, but now swayed towards a bomb! Silly!

Styrafoam

T.V. - The cathode ray tube, the radiation gun aimed at the viewer, this gun can be reasonably compared to a tractor beam that holds its subjects in total control. The physical, spiritual and social consequences of this phenomenon are subject to debate. In a poetic sense and without exaggerating one might say that the television technology is eating the subjects who sit before its gaze. - Godfrey Reggio

oil refining then we wouldn't have had this climate change thing about to wipe out the coastlines of the world, severe drought, flooding, pollution deaths, the scourge of plastic in all of our eco-system... the list goes on.

do medical inventions count?.. like i would say that abortions or cloning i could live without :)

Nuclear fission, the kind that's used for nuclear weapons, and the kind used to provide electrical power, too...both types create nuclear waste (and fallout), which no one has ever found a satisfactory way to dispose of; it just sits and glows malevolently for thousands of years, regardless of where it's put and into what kind of container, waiting for an opportunity to seep out into the groundwater supply and create even more problems than it already has. Yep, that's what I'd get rid of.

modern advertising and all the industries that go along with it, like modeling. photography and film should be left to art and movies.

Text-messaging. It is a disease that began with adolescent cell-phone users and which has now spread to the entire civilized world. Texting is not uncommon to see during class, while driving, and while simultaneously conversing with companions. It is slowly killing the art of conversation.

Disposable batteries. I just started to recharge my camera batteries and my cell phone.... obviously everything could have a rechargeable cell.

It occurs to me that this question has the tendency to bring out the whole "world peace" type of answer. Of course, it would be wonderful to never have invented weapons going all the way back to a stick or rock to pummel someone with. So, bypassing these types of answers, I'm going to say that I think the world would be a better place if battery-run toys were never invented. They rob children of imagination. these toys have produced a generation of parents who think there's only 1 way to play with something. By turning it on. These parents have children who have to have Lego's with a theme since they can no longer invent something from just a box of Lego's. As they get older, they are inundated with toys that make music, light up, move and solve problems with no involvement from the kids other than flipping the switch. I'm all for giving kids blocks, tinker toys & a huge box. Dress-up clothes & a towel or sheet to become superheroes. and for goodness sakes, go outside and dig a hole or something.

Yep, I'm with you on the leaf-blowers, casjen58. Totally unnecessary and annoying.

Leaf blowers! Noise pollution, and totally unneeded.

computer games that involve and promote viloence, guns, gloom, doom , and car chases and things of this nature. I feel it just sparks ideas and plants the seed in folks heads. It's like an evil brain worm.

Slaughterhouses. I dont think its a question of eating animals, its would u eat as many as you do today, if you had to do it yourself?

Many people are saying weapons. But I don't think doing so would solve the underlying human problem. We would just start beating up on each other with spoons and nail clippers and whatever else came handy. Personally, I would like to see rectal thermometers done away with. Either that or gelatin. It's just plain evil.

@halfadash about womens rights? ok yes, im kidding, but that statement has proved to take up more than one class period for discussion.

hhhhmmm.....good one. To answer on a global or personal level..that is the question. However, if you look at inventions like an eco-system (and no, I am not a tree hugger - no offense, really) if you take one out, wouldn't it throw things off balance? Too deep.. so I think I will go with ties as well. Don't like them, don't get them.

Ties. We're so used to seeing people wearing them, we sort of think they look normal. But if you were an alien you would be more puzzled by ties than anything else.

I can't think of an actual INVENTION, one person said it with inventions don't suck people do, well they didn't say that exactly BUT its the truth. I would like to rid the WORLD of Organized Religon.......just praise whom you want and leave others alone and know that they too love and have faith in their GOD. I HATE SMOKING BUT~people have the right to do what they will.....just stand away away away from me stinky! But feel free.

Smoking.

Money. It truly is the root.

I was having, what I thought was, a meaningful discussion with my dear hubby......I was explaining to him this wonderful website, I had just discovered....soulpancake.... Describing to him, all the interesting topics, and how great it is to read the comments of others and how thought provoking it is..............so, I asked him "If you could get rid of one invention, what would it be?" He replied......"the bra"......... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................................ :(

the real question is: "if you could get rid of one human behavior, what would it be?" inventions exist because we make them and we decide how to use them. the inventions themselves have no thoughts, no intentions, no morality. we're the problem!

second idea, womens rights! think of how much time and money has been wasted by having women in the workplace. if women make less doing the same job as a man, wouldnt it make more sense for a family to have the man work, and make more money, and the wife stays home and cleans, then there doesnt need to be an argument about who takes the trash out after work, or whos turn it is to do the dishes. lower the divorce rate, which means less childrens lives screwed by parents splitting up, which means less issues to work out later in life, meaning a more productive workforce, thus a better world. the argument makes sense, not that i am against womens rights, there needs to be a decent joke every once in a while

cell phones

reality tv.

I had considered WAR, but am against overpopulation. Since it is one of the few things keeping humans in check, I thought to keep it. Next, I thought of OWNERSHIP. Once we began to control/SELL food stores, land rights, and education acquisition, it marginalized a great many people. If there were no ownership, how would we work our civilization? I think many native peoples have found a nice equilibrium with their environment because they are cohabitants, not conquerers.

Agriculture.

Sovereign nations.

@PHREAKYMUNKy : Love your post I too am not "anti christian" but i am anti piety I think religion and theology are great things and allow for the beautiful gift of personal faith.....but its when we try and force this personal gift onto others that I think we get into trouble. World = good, natural, functioning thing Man(and Woman) + World = yikes!!!! (edited for possibly sexism =P )

If nobody has said it yet, i would have to say the electoral college..... if that one is taken then the BCS bowl system

i would have to say organized religion. people should be able to worship or achieve a personal spirituality without the guilt and mantra passed down by someone else who thinks they know better. i am not anti-religion, but i do feel more suffering has been caused in the name of religion than would have been if people were able to work out the details for themselves

Leaf blowers.

I'm sure the intent was to name something that the human mind came up with and then man made. Not sure if this qualifies but I would get rid of EGO. It's the one thing that makes us think we are separate from everyone else. With out it we wouldn't need to rid ourselves of guns, gun powder, borders, religions or any of the other things mentioned. I'd hope that we would have never felt the need to create them in the first place.

Borders. Borders are imaginary lines drawn because of political agendas and intolerance. Borders are the reason we used to have wars, and they're the reason we need institutions like the UN. Without borders we would all be one world, one economy. There wouldn't be a reason for nuclear weapons. Imagine what life would be like if the world was one country.

People badmouth religion so much, but while terrible things have been done in the name of religion, the majority of the good things people have done throughout history originate with religious values as well, though probably less so in the last few centuries when secular notions of morality have gained more currency, but even most of these can trace their origins to religious foundations. It's also worth noting that the twentieth century saw horrendous acts done in the name of science and atheist ideologies like eugenics. In a few decades, Hitler and Stalin gave all the sins of religious fanatics a run for their money. The real villain underneath all of these is violent, extreme ideologies to which human beings are prone. Whatever ideas have a lot of cultural currency, people will find a way to use for extreme ends. At one point it was religion, but the fact that you have environmentalist extremists who want to see the human race reduced by more than half (mass genocide) for the sake of the planet shows that all things are rife for corruption.

War. War is man at his worst. War is not inevitable. War is man's design for hell. War is men fighting over their own tombs.

rush limbaughs career

i wish alcohol was never invented/discovered for recreational use/whatever you want to call it. i hate the substance. i hate what it does to people. no good ever comes of alcohol, and i think the world would be a better place without it. but everything happens for a reason, so there must be some reason why alcohol exists. i just don't know what it is yet.

@Kaschua I agree. Credit makes you think that you deserve to get things that you haven't worked for yet. And when the payments overwhelm you, you're stuck in their system. Spending money that you never had, on something that you shouldn't have gotten, then paying fees with the money that you earned. Whatever happened to saving for things?

I thought about this for a while. My first inclination was to say the atomic bomb, but then I was reminded of all of the good things that splitting the atom has and still can lead to. And I keep running into this problem. It's not the inventions or discoveries that I would get rid of, but rather the fact that humans seem to be really good at taking these things that could help so much, then twisting them into weapons or other destructive results. Every invention that I can think of so far has a good side and a bad side. A lot of the inventions that I would get rid of have helped immensely. If I could get rid of one by *replacing* it with something better, I would get rid combustion engines and replace them with solar-powered or other clean energy driven devices.

religion

Credit cards. Ironically, I don't have any personally, but I believe credit is an evil of convenience. Oh certainly, they can be useful, but more people abuse them than use them responsibly. Not only do people not use them well, think of all the waste of resources, time, and effort goes into advertising them. I receive no fewer than ten credit card spiels a week. They go into the trash and are not even examined beyond a cursory glance. I always wonder how people afford all of their gadgets and vacations; they charge them. I think the idea of incremental payments is excellent and more or less necessary for larger items, but the interest and temptation of having this open pool of money available to purchase anything you wish is too great for humans to handle. It's a tricky force in our economy, but along with insurance, seems to be bleeding people dry. Paranoia and the insecurity of not having the appearance of wealth are just plain wrong. So yeah. Down with credit.

Are cigarettes an invention? They are the first thing that popped to mind. Get rid of em'!

The splitting of the atom to produce the Atomic Bomb... Pandora's box. Though its not so much an invention as a discovery, still. Nobody should have the power to kill in that volume with a single weapon... its a tragedy, and this should not be in mans power.

Premade greeting cards and disposeable anything.

I know I'll take a lashing for saying so in this venue, but I'd get rid of religion. More war, strife, and suffering have occured because of religion or religious motives than anything else, whether it be violence in the service of conquest over "savages" or "infidels," interstitial conflicts between sects, or terror in the hands of fundamentalists. I just listened to a fascinating interview with Karen Armstrong on Bill Moyers Journal (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html" target="_blank">http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html) on the topic of religion. She says that at the base of all religion is the impulse of compassion, which I think is true; however, she also says that it is the infection of ego in religion that makes it dangerous, puts it in the service of politics or oppression. If we could have all the good of religion without the bad, then I'd retract my wish to get rid of it; however, it seems that that is not possible, and therefore if I could wish it away, I most definitely would. I've had a similar discussion about this before and people are quick to point out that World War II was started by Hitler, who most people believe was an outright athiest. Putting aside that there is actually quite a bit of doubt on this matter because he made many conflicting statements about religion, we can take athiests like Pol Pot or Stalin as equally damaging examples of non-religiously motivated violence. However, I would argue that these men were secular godheads of their own perverted totalitarian religions of destruction and violence. So, I'd get rid of secular "religion" as well. But even if you add up the dead caused by these men, they don't hold a candle to the cumulative violence done in the service of relgion.

I would get rid of lottery tickets. Nothing more than a tax on the poor! On a personal level, I hate standing in line at a convenience store, only to be inconvenienced by someone in front of me who wants to buy a week's wages of lottery tickets. So yeah, a few people win the big money, but also case after case of people who win then totally crash and burn because they don't know how to handle their new found wealth. Earning money and winning money are two very different animals.

@bradyLARKIN But if nobody had guns then nobody could kill each other with guns... I vote for guns/bombs and other weapons Not like axes because people need those but.... other stuff like that.

guns. why? so that violence would end? no, thats stupid. so that i would have a reason to learn how to fight with swords, axes, ropes, etc. and no one could just shoot me while i'm about to kick tale like in Indiana Jones.

I agree with Nik wholeheartedly, but my answer would be gunpowder. I have always felt that the way of the gun is something that is cowardly. Killing something with a gun is too easy. To kill something with a bladed weapon or even a simple bow and arrow requires more skill and training. War and murder is something that's going to happen regardless. Weapons are needed in a historical sense for food gathering, but in today's society where food is something that is industrialized there really is no need for a weapon. To say something along the lines of the luxuries of the modern electronic age (cell phones, computers, internet) just doesn't seem as important to me because they may seem "destructive" to our society, but it's not as destructive as any kind of weapon. For example, yes people can and have wasted countless amounts of time on the internet (perhaps posting their opinions on websites dealing with "debating, wrestling with, and exploring creativity AND spirituality"), but it allows the world to be a little closer together. We can converse with people on a world-wide level instantaneously. Talking to people across distances in a time frame that was unheard of 100 years ago, possible within a limited amount of space 75 years ago, and expensive as hell 50 and even 25 years ago. There will always be cases people who abuse these wonderful gifts. I really feel that given enough time the amount of rudeness when it comes to cell phone etiquette will diminish. My only real fear when it comes to internet and text messaging and cell phones is the degeneration of our language. I had an English professor in college that had an e-mail address but told us at the beginning of the semester that he never used it. He hated e-mail and was a bit of a luddite, but it kind of showed me how things had slipped. The whole idea of "OMG, IMHO, where RU?, LOL, BTW, BRB ROXXORZZ!!!, etc." just really churns my stomach. I feel like a bit of an oddity sometimes for caring about spelling out the full word, punctuation, capitalization, and things along those lines whenever I post on the internet or send a text message to someone. That being said, I feel that that can be countered by responsibility of people to teach proper language. Boy did I get way off the topic...

Those small white hand choppers, that chop nuts and stuff but are a pain in the butt to clean. For some odd reason my family owns about seven of them and every time I throw one away another one shows back up, yet we hardly ever use them. A knife is SSSOOOOOOO much better. I would get rid of that stupid little thing in a heart beat.

The atomic bomb, in all its incarnations. DEFINITELY. This is the ONE invention I think we could do without. The scary thing is that this invention could easily become our undoing. WE invented it, but other people will use it to destroy much of civilization because of their insane perspectives. Yes, it may have saved more lives in WWII by ending the war earlier. But I am not sure that this was worth it...

and ritalin can go too. ADD is a big part of someones personality who has it and its wrong to take that away

If only we could do away with the whole thought of "Better Than". It is the desire to be better than the next guy, religion, country, whatever that makes inventions weapons, that drives people to shop SkyMall and infomercials. It is almost comical that all the things designed to better our lives drive us to work more to afford them and then want something even faster so we can work more... you get the picture.

guns are good. i would much rather get shot than have my arm cut off or stabbed in the gut. same with nuke. i think weapons in the right hands are a great thing. money also makes life a lot easier. i agree w/ bachelorchow tho. ak-47's can go. more people die brutally and unnecessarily from ak's than any other weapon. also biological warfare is pretty messed up. but mostly, drugs not used medicinally (crack, speed, meth, pot, cigarettes, etc.) can all go. they dont do any good

Genetically modified corn.

All weapons: chemical, nuclear, fire arms, etc. Please be free to fill in the blanks! No pun intended! Why were weapons invented in the first place...to be used against another fellow being, whether that being is human or animal.

I do believe you are all underthinking this one. Have you ever watched infomercials? I personally cannot see getting to the point where buying any of that garbage would be a sensible choice. i would have to agree with whoever it was that mentioned skymall, what a useless waste of tree, makes me sick. But what makes me even more sick, is that fact that for so many years, they must have done enough business via skymall that it still exists... oh the path humanity is on. If I could pick one invention to completely wipe from existence, it would be the "personal massager" at what point does the stock equipment no longer do it for you? in no human relationship will it ever feel as good as when using your "personal massager". im sure there is no economical plus to these like there is with cell phones, and there is no life saving quality, and hear me out on this one, that we get from guns and other weapons. all these items do is take away the reason to coexist, which I personally believe is the pooint of existing in the first place. it makes me sick that there are entire stores devoted to selling such products. now to defend my stance on the whole weapons thing. guns were not created for killing people, neither was the bow and arrow. they were meant to be more efficient ways of gathering food, but, as is societies norm, they were misused and turned into this bad thing used to exploit and thats when they become bad. I respect a bow hunter more than someone using a shotgun to kill a deer, but through the development of the compound bow, I tihnk my respect level has deminished a bit. wow i went off topic, so here we go, guns save lives right here, ready? say your husband/wife is a police officer, and he/she responds to a crime scene. there are two men holding 14 bank patrons hostage, threatening to kill all 14 people if their demands are not met. I am so not playing God with this one, but i say shoot the two hostage holders, and save 14 lives. call me crazy, but that seems logical to me.

Now, not so heavy, my kids were given a bubble blower that blows bubbles for them. I don't recall them saying how tiring it was blowing all those bubbles, but apparently someone did! I mean that's whats so fun about the whole thing!!

This a good one. I would say just about all chemically made pain medications. I know some people really need relief, but I would guess that these corporations mass produce them just to get them on the streets. They don't care who takes them as long as they are being sold..

Just watched a documentary on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Still feel sick to my stomach... Atomic Bomb for sure. The testimonies of those that lived through it, and the pictures of the destruction are haunting and should be shown to world leaders so as this may never happen again.

intolerance.

@KatieRose i LOVE looking at the sky mall magazine. but to answer the question... im not a fan of the gun, nor organized religion, if that be an invention. I wouldnt mind getting rid of the tv, because i dont watch it all too much and i think id be fine without it, it takes away from being happy outside and enjoying real life

What an interesting question! I'm going to have to go along with oscarromulus below me and elaborate on what he said. I think those machine guns a la 'The Matrix' can go. Nuclear weapons are obviously a one-time use and therefore completely unnecessary. But let me think for a second about something mundane... they have this little contraption that holds a bracelet for you so that you can attach it around your wrist with one hand. I think that's pretty dumb. We could do without that. Also, take a look at the SkyMall magazine the next time you fly and you'll find a whole book of useless stuff! (Kind of entertaining, I must admit)

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Cell phones and Blackberries. Once upon a time, you waited until you got home or at work to talk to someone by phone. Now, you have to hear about dentist appointment being canceled since the person sitting next to you has to dial about five different people in the course of 30 minutes to tell them this newsflash. About 10 or 15 years ago - that conversation wouldn't have existed on the train. It would have waited until you were in a private place. Don't get me wrong. I love cell phones and BB's. I work in technology. They are immensely useful, lifesaving tools, but people use these devices as a crutch. They can't sit alone in a public space for at least an hour without having to convey meaningless messages to people. Human f2f interaction is lessened, and the need to sit quietly and meditate is makes people lose sense of themselves and their surroundings.

Cell phones. I think it would've been lovely to live in a time where when someone wanted to speak with you they would come visit you and you would converse face to face. Or you would hand write letters...who doesn't like getting a nice letter in the mail?

There are too many to pick just 1. I was reading the responses and my initial thought was cell phones. But absolutely guns for sure .It may not stop all the gruesome things humans do to eachother but it may make an impact. Save some 4-legged creatures too.

@toddmarrone God is no invention. He is the great inventor! Without Him, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

Text messages. I think that's what has brought forth the largest and most irritating social degeneration of this decade. We need to learn to talk to one another face-to-face again, and not worry about communication with hundreds of others at the same time.

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Air "fresheners", scented candles & artificial food coloring! - but MOST especially that new invention of paint "freshener"! I don't think fake rose-scented paint is going to smell any better than paint - how about just clean, fresh air???? although kudos to the inventor, it was creative.

CELL PHONES!

The one invention I'd get rid of is cable news. A 24/7 news cycle overheats every little event or statement to the same level of intensity as major ones. To sustain this much talk legions of talking heads and media hired guns get placed on "shows" that basically repeat the SAME info over & over. The federal govt spends more time "managing" these "news" items than actually governing. We the people get distracted by superficial style fauz pas rather than engage in real discussions. Cable News: ya gotta go!

microwave. I don't think I've had an un-nuked meal in years. Creeps me out, but i'm too lazy to cook.

The camera. People spend too much time recording what they do and not enough time actually experiencing it. Many prefer experiencing life through a lens, but I feel like this forces humankind toward living in the past. [However, I have mixed feelings because some innovative information is possible only through use of the camera.]

I would get rid of those wheels that spin independently of the tires. Think of all the problems in modern society that would be eliminated if this invention were to disappear.

WEAPONS and CRUELTY in general...

I think every invention has its place. Atoms bomb, if nothing else, teach us about the absolutely necessity for peace. Just because something has been invented doesn't mean we have to use it to excess, or to kill. Someone somewhere said something about beating swords into plowshares. If we didn't have swords, that notion wouldn't be so powerful. Maybe we gotta reach a state of real purity, grown up purity. Not the kind that babies have, but the kind that says, "Yeah, we know how to kill each other in a million and one-half ways. But we've finally figured out that we're all one, so we don't do that any more."

The cell phone can be wonderfully convenient. That said, I long for the days when people didn't yammer endlessly, loudly and in pubic at unseen persons. It's a major distraction that keeps people from being here now.

Ketchup Packets-I love ketchup more than the average person but the amount of ketchup that comes in packets means that you have to open about ten thousand of them individually to get enough for one double cheeseburger. I never think it's worth all the waste and hassle it takes to enjoy a ketchupy burger.

I would get rid of the Snuggie. That thing is going to destroy us. And I would get rid of those Croc shoes. Those are ugly.

Television. Unfortunately, it sucks you in and distracts you from living your real life. Yes, I know, just turn it off, but there are magnets inside the screen. If you are strong enough to pull yourself away and turn it off, the magnets have somehow removed the remote making it impossible to locate.

Cigarettes. They do nothing but pollute. And I'm sick and f*****g tired of all you as*holes throwing them out your car window, still burning, onto the street or sidewalk or whatever. What is an empty Mountain Dew can if not an ashtray? And yeah, I used to smoke and I quit. Slave no more.

24 hour news. It makes very dangerous mountains out of molehills.

I agree with some of those before me who say this as well - I would want to get rid of all weapons invented after the bow and arrow - that would include any biological weapons and Atomic bombs...I think the place would be better for it. Swords and a Bow and Arrow are kinda hard to hide so no one could just walk around with one...it not all weapons though then the Atomic Bomb most definitely!!

That should be all weapons that don't use gunpowder, really wish I could edit my posts;)

This is a hard one. My first though was the same as alex, all weapons before gunpowder, but that is not enough. WMD's sound good, but it still does not solve all the problems. Maybe Television.(sorry Rainn) I am not that old, but remember what it was like to be thrilled by travel because it was new and exciting. Thanks to TV, nothing thrills us, moves us, or shocks us. It is all trivial now, even death. No more local culture, everyone wants to be what they see on MTV. No more accents, colloquialisms, it seems that everywhere you go, everyone sounds like the next. Just my thought.

It could be argued that the nuclear bomb is something that has kept a general peace on earth for the last 60 or so years. Nuclear Weapons, ever since they were first (and last) used in World War 2, are the bomb that's too big too use. It wasn't used in the Cold War - if it weren't for nuclear weapons, there could have been full-out war with the Soviet Union. As long as nuclear weapons are kept safe from the people actually crazy enough to do everyone in the world harm, I think they act as a weapon that's so big, nobody actually wants to use it.

I would get rid of all weapons past the sword and shield. It actually took skill to kill with a sword, where as any idiot can point and pull a trigger.

The invention of the stupid mass produced idea. Everyone should have the right to their own personal stupid idea. That is like being a good American right?! It is when we are all subjected to a mass produced stupid ideas like plastic covering purchases that are covered with more plastic sealed in oversize boxes or bottles that are maybe stuffed with cotton balls or plastic popping packing material and then wrapped in outer plastic. By the time I manage to open my purchase the warranty is no longer valid and the expiration date is history. Whatever happen to simplicity?

There's this book by Orson Scott Card called "Memory of Earth" (which I love) and in this book mankind is prevented from inventing the wheel because supposedly the wheel is the invention which allows mankind to move about easily enough to wage wars and potentially decimate mankind's population. But at the same time, it also prevents people in different areas from trading and working together, and limits development because nothing that requires wheels can be made. That's why I wouldn't uninvent things- because inventions can have both positive and negative results and it really depends on how we use them.

First thought was bombs or guns, but before those were invented people just killed each other face-to-face, and its not like we didn't have war. So I will go with high heels. If no-one ever invented high heels, we would all walk around in sensible shoes and I wouldn't feel compelled to spend outrageous amounts of money and destroy my back tottering around on 4in stilettos!

Harmful pesticides and herbicides as well as chemicals that are put into food products that are not safe and merely designed to make more money for the food companies (trans fats, for example). I want to eat actual food, not science experiments with my body being the guinea pig.

Factory Farms, barnone. Factory Farms are places of unfathomable torture and death. Be gone with them.

I agree with weapons of mass destruction - to a point. It's a horrible thing - of course! But a part of me thinks that just the very threat of these weapons may keep a lot more bad things from happening. I mean if there weren't people in the world intent on wiping out others who are different from them then yes, by all means a terrible invention, but since there are I think it is a necessary evil. Wow, this ? is really tough!!!!!

The nuclear bomb. Nothing can do as much damage, says I.

Weapons of mass destruction.

Money. I would get rid of money without a doubt. A world without money is a world without a need for a power struggle. No greed, no poverty. A world without our leash. A world without the one thing that the world holds above our heads from the day we are born till the day we die. It would be a world where you could do what you want and you could truly be free. A world without money would be like a world without lawyers.

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